Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Student Response Systems (Part 2)

Following on from yesterday's post, this is a list of student
response systems collated from various sources. I did consider doing this as a
table of features but there are so many criteria that this was impossible to do
effectively, so what I have aimed to do instead is pick out key points from
each offering. You can see in my blog post (Part 1) the things that you need to
consider. This list began when I posed a question on the Alt-members
(Association of Learning Technologists) forum, so many of those listed are
suggestions / recommendations from members. The products repeatedly mentioned
were Poll Everywhere and TurningPoint. Other products came from various
sources. It is not a complete list nor is the information under each entry
comprehensive. The information is accurate as of July 2014, but will change
quickly over time.

A poll is a question. Create as many questions
as you like, no matter which pricing structure you are on

Question types: Open-ended or multiple choice.

Images can be added to questions (drag and
drop)

Can add LaTex: equations

SMS, Twitter, Web responses from students

Cap of 40 students for a free web account.

Pricing plan for Higher Ed

You can see results change as the vote comes
in (but be careful as this can influence how later voters give their
response)

No delay in distributing, collecting or
maintaining devices as students use their own

Some controversy over pricing - make sure you
check. See this blog post by Anne Cunningham (Cardiff
University)

“Polleverywhere does have a plugin for
presenting polls via PowerPoint. Interestingly, half of our trial
participants preferred to poll directly from the Polleverywhere ( at the
beginning of the trial, 9 out of the 18 academics who registered to
participate responded yes to the question “If possible, would you like to
present Polleverywhere questions using PowerPoint?” ) (Darren Gash,
University of Surrey) (Note added by Terese Bird - make sure that the
managed PCs used by tutors have the plugin installed or it can be
frustrating.)

“We use poll everywhere with the students' own
smartphones through SMS/Twitter/Web. Much cheaper and easier to administer
than using custom PRS devices.” (Dr Chris Evans, Brunel Business School)

“I used polleverywhere this past week at an
'industry meet the university' sort of session about byod, and it was
really good.... It got the point across that we can use whatever device
we own and good learning can happen.” (Terese Bird, Learning
Technologist, University of Leicester)

“We recently completed a trial of
Polleverywhere with the aim of finding an alternative to our existing
clicker-based system introduced in 2006. Although they have served
the University well, their reliance on proprietary hardware (clickers and
receivers) has limited adoption by students (some are either reluctant to
carry additional electronic devices around with them or make the effort to
book them out from library services) and staff (who have experienced
problems getting the receivers to work).The trial has been very positive.
Students overwhelmingly found Polleverywhere easy to use, and those who
had previous experience with clickers preferred using their own devices.
Similarly, staff on the whole found Polleverywhere easy to use, quick to
set up and preferred it to the clicker-based system. There is also the
potentially wider educational benefit through students being able to
respond to open questions with text messages which we’re keen to explore.
As a result of the trial we’ve purchased a year site license for
Polleverywhere. (Darren Gash, University of Surrey)

“Just to echo what Darren has said below. I
implemented PollEV in pilot this year. We purchased a license covering
1000 students. The feedback was excellent. We are now expanding wider
across my faculty/institution due to the increased interest. Obviously
BYOD is a key factor halting wider roll out, so we are investigating
purchasing small and cheap devices that can be used where students don’t
have anything to use themselves. “ (Matt East, Anglia Ruskin
University)

Handsets available, often called ‘clickers’ –
different types available offering different types of question
possibilities, including a self-paced option (Response Card NXT)

“We’re using Turning Point handsets currently.
We bought some last summer and keep them centrally so we can loan them to
departments when needed. More recently, one of our larger departments has
purchased handsets for all their first and second year students (starting
next academic year) whilst another large department has purchased the
ResponseWare licences with Turning Point, so students use their own
devices to answer questions. “ (Catherine Mclean, University of Essex)

Software option for use with students’ own
devices is called Responseware
(http://www.turningtechnologies.com/response-solutions/responseware)

“We’ve been using turningpoint handheld
clickers for years at Warwick but are now hoping to get funding to licence
responseware web client that works alongside it (on web browsers and
mobile app). We started using them before the whole BYOD thing and there
is still a feeling that we’re not ready to move away from the bespoke
handset option altogether. Turningpoint plus reponseware is nicely hybrid.
Simon Lancaster from UEA demoed the hybrid approach recently at a guest
lecture here and got us thinking!” (Amber Thomas, University of Warwick)

Responseware doesn’t support the self-paced
polling facility: “We looked at Responseware but decided to continue with
dedicated hardware for a number of reasons, not least the ability of our
WiFi to reliably handle the number of devices in some areas of the campus
(an upgrade project is in progress but naturally it’s not an overnight
job) and because ResponseWare doesn’t support the Self Paced Polling
facility. We plan to use the Self Paced feature to facilitate computer
marked assessments which have a greater range of question types available,
to avoid having to shoehorn questions into multiple choice format to use
with our optical marking system, and can be taken by greater numbers of
students than can be accommodated in a computer room in one sitting.
Even if the feature were available on the app, it would give the
invigilators considerable difficulty in ensuring that students are only
using that app and haven’t switched to a browser to research the answer.”
(Steve Bentley, University of Huddersfield)

“We've been running the TP handsets since
about 2010, and have found them pretty good. As reported elsewhere, some
of our departments and larger faculties have taken the steps of buying
them for all their students and tying the handset IDs to the students
registration where attendance monitoring was an important issue for
complying with external regulatory bodies such as the GMC for our medics.
The downside to TP is of course being tied to their hardware, however some
areas are now looking at the app version. What I would say about TP, which
isn't so much the case with some of the other ones, and I think this is a
major reason why it is popular with teaching staff is the integration with
PowerPoint. We have TP on our managed desktop, and I think the fact it is
so easy to use and represents such a small leap from what they already do
is a significant attraction.“ (Graham McElearney, University of Sheffield)

Exit ticket feature – 3 quick questions to get
feedback at the end of a class

“At the Language Centre we also use socrative
(maybe language groups are generally smaller classes anyway so no cost
involved) Also, from the point of view of logisitics BYOD is a better
solution as specialist hardware is not easily accessible when our staff
teach in so many different locations. “ (Teresa McKinnon, University of
Warwick Language Centre

“I used it successfully with a group of 60
participants using a variety of devices, some supplied (ipad minis),
others brought by participants - iphones, android phones, laptops, Windows
phones. In fact it was only the Blackberry users who had trouble !!!”
(Matt Smith)

“Dear Members: The State of Tennessee uses
NearPod (you can use on ALL devices including lap top). It is free and
offers more than a student response system. You can use it as a
clicker,poll, testing, drawing, video, etc. Yes, it is FREE for the
students and the basic level for instructors! This application allows our
instructor to use as an attendance tool, instructional tool, communication
tool, and most importantly a teaching and learning tool and assessment
tool.Plus, the instructor may upload content, browse the web, etc. and
have it to show on the students' mobile device of choice.” (Robbie Melton)

“I invite you to also consider LectureTools from Echo360. With it you
can pose questions as multiple choice, free response, reorder list,
image-based and numerical plus students can pose questions, take notes,
annotate slides and indicate when they’re confused. In addition, it
offers a growing list of learning analytics so you can do research on to
what degree student participation affects learning in your classes
(e.g.http://www.sageonstage.com).”
Perry Samson, University of Michigan

Future Event: Perry Samson will be presenting
lessons learned using LectureTools on Sep 1 at the ALT-C
Conference

“It allows as many responses as you like and
lets recipients SMS, e-mail or type in a web page box. Then you can ping
the resposnes straight (integrated) into Wordle for a word cloud.” (Mark
Gamble, University of Bedfordshire)

Question Presentation: randomly shuffle the order of options for each respondent in multiple choice questions, images displayed in the question with pinch-to-zoom for touch devices, videos from YouTube and media from other sites can be embedded in the question

Responding: unlimited audience size, unlimited number of open sessions, guaranteed anonymity for respondents, enhanced support for Android, iPhone, iPad and Blackberry devices

Easy to use and we have used it effectively in staff PD & multi-campus classes when presenting via videoconference to get remote students to ask questions and contribute to discussion (Janet Buchan, James Cook University)

“A new way to capture student
(and anyone else’s) response is by simple video capture using mobile
devices in the main. It allows the questioner to pose questions by video
capture that the respondent can then watch and reply to, using the same
video capture. It works on handheld devices as well as laptops so can be
used for web quests etc. Well worth looking at as it replaces the need for
written feedback. It could be used to capture learner experiences for
OfSTED and Marketing purposes. Can provide the ‘vox pop’ type capture of a
video box.” (Geoff Rebbeck, Freelance)

Not really suitable for use
in lectures, but could be used to capture questions and responses
in-between times.

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